I was born eighty-seven years ago.

For sixty-five years I have ruled as Equestria's Princess, but for all these years I have never been the master of my own dreams.

I have seen the gates of Oblivion, beyond which no waking eye may see.

In darkness, a doom sweeps the land.

This is the twenty-seventh of Last Seed, the year of Celestia 433.

These are the days closing of the Third Era, and the final hours of my life...

"Pale skin. Snooty expression. You're a Breton. The masters of magicka, right? Hmmmpfff. Nothing but cheap parlor tricks and hocus pocus conjured up by a bunch of freaks and outcasts."

Snake Eyes.

That was the name of the grey-brown earth pony in the cell across the hall lobbing insults at me.

"Hey, I know what! How 'bout you melt these bars away with a fireball! No? Teleport out of here perhaps? Can't do that either huh? Well aren't you just the sorriest excuse for a Breton to ever walk the surface of Tamriel."

I had overheard one of the guards briefly mention him last night, quite the feat considering the...state which I was in last night. From what I could tell, everyone in this prison wants old Snake Eyes's head on a pike, and understandably so: In the brief time I've known him, I'd already discovered one his one true talent: Being an Asshole.

"You're not leaving this prison till they throw your body in the river. You hear that? You're going to die in here Breton. You're going to die."

Heh.

The Imperial Watch arrested me last night after a quick scuffle involving some telekinetically shoplifted health potions and alchemical ingredients. The "scuffle" lasted around two and a half hours, and mostly consisted of them chasing me around the Canterlot districts while I lobbed the odd stun spell or fireball at them to keep them on their toes. Things went pear shaped when I took a hard buck to the face from an annoyingly diligent and law-abiding orange earth pony hauling a cart of apples. And by hard, I mean hard.The kick sent me backwards a good eight feet, and knocked me silly. They hauled me here in a daze, and tossed me into this cell. I passed out on a filthy bedroll casually laid out on the floor.

Breton physiology, and actually the physiology of the other races of men have a surprising tendency to heal wounds overnight during one's sleep. Many scholars believe that it has something to do with the innate magical energies present within our bodies, the same energies which allow human mages to cast various spells. In short, injuries that take the other species (Argonians, Orcs, and Khajiit) days or even weeks to recover from, we can recover from overnight, provided we get an adequate amount of sleep.

I recovered quite well from my concussion last night, with the exception of the splitting headache I had awoken with this morning, but that dissipated after a few minutes.

"When they dragged you in here last night, I could have sworn you were some kind of moron. In fact, I still can."

Now I was just annoyed.

"Maybe I should try insulting you more slowly. Who knows, you might even understand one or two of the words I'm saying"

At the stupid unicorn in the other cell.

"Hey. Idiot. Can. You. Un. Der. Stand. Me. Now? No? Oh well, I could have sworn that would have worked.

Who won't shut up.

"Urghhh... hey moron, you know I used to be an adventurer like you, or should I say used to be, until I took an arrow to th-

"FLAGRO!"

FWOOOOSSHHEEEEEEEEEEEP! VOOM!

"AAAIEEEEP!"

The fireball had left my hands, flown through the bars of both cells, and splashed across the face of my obnoxious neighbor less than a second after I had uttered the incantation.. It was a flare, a small fireball used primarily for illumination. Singes your hair a little, but otherwise its completely harmless.You could have tried telling that to Snake Eyes, but I doubt he would have listened as he was far too preoccupied literally and figuratively losing his shit.

"YOU'RE CRAZY! I THOUGHT YOU WERE A MADMAN THE SECOND I SAW THEM DRAG YOU IN HERE, AND I WAS RIGHT! THEY'LL HAVE YOU DRAWN AND QUARTERED FOR THIS! ASSAULTING ANOTHER PRISONER!"

The clanging of metal keys and the sharp screech of an opening door quickly drew both of our attentions to the top of the staircase - the entrance to this particular prison block.

"THAT'S THEM NOW! THE GUARDS ARE COMING! FOR YOU!"

I looked up nervously, and gulped hard. Then I took two steps back in disbelief.

In place of the wardens coming to beat me senseless for assaulting another prisoner was a squad of Imperials, clad in the armor of the blades - the Princess' elite personal bodyguard - and behind them, a large, indigo blue alicorn with an ethereal starry mane seemingly made out of the fabric of the night sky itself. It was unmistakeably, Luna, the Princess of Equestria, and reigning Empress of the Equestrian Empire.

I watched stupidly as this larger than life monarch and her entourage briskly trotted to the bars of my cell.

"What's this prisoner doing here!?"

"Must have been some mix-up at the watch!"

I barely registered the lead Blade's order to stand back while she opened the door to my cell, and even when they were inside scouring the walls of the cell for...something... I could hardly believe the scene unfolding in front of me.

"You...I have seen you..."

I was violently shaken from my daze by the realization that the Princess had just addressed me personally. I turned, and found myself eye to eye with the most powerful being in all of Equestria. But the arrogance and hostility that I had come to expect from the nobility of Equestria was not there. Instead she had kind eyes, The Princess. She spoke softly, almost like how a mother would speak to her beloved son. The Luna here in my cell seemed a far cry from the Luna I had seen deliver many a grand speech to the people using the traditional royal Canterlot voice.

"Let me see your face child..."

She lifted a hoof to my face to inspect it further, and I obliged.

"You are the one from my dreams. Then the stars were right, and this is the day. Gods give me strength."

Meekly, I asked the Princess, "What's going on Your Majesty"

She turned her head to face the wall. I could see a gentle glint coming from her eyes.

"Assassins have murdered my sons, and I am next. My Blades are taking me through a path that leads out of the city."

She looked back to me, and gave a weak smile.

"By chance, the entrance to that passage leads through your cell."

*BRRRRRRUUUUUUULLLLLLLFFFFFFFDDDP*

We both turned just in time to see a part of the wall open, revealing the ancient, decrepit tunnel - The Princess's escape route.

The lead Blade hurried The Princess into the tunnel, and then turned to face me. She gave me a quick smile before ushering me along.

"Look's like today's your lucky day."

600 years ago, in the final days of the Second Era, the Chaos Wars raged on, marring once beautiful countrysides and taking the lives of untold thousands.

Powerful Magics plunged entire islands into the depths of the ocean, and shattered the natural order. The great Celestial Bodies were thrown into absolute disarray following the destruction of one of Nirn's moons.

Weather ran rampant, and ferocious storms ravaged entire continents, causing intense famines that all but destroyed hundreds of small subsistence farming communities.

Wild beasts, led by the enigmatic Deerish, rampaged through the countryside, destroying whole towns and villages along their warpath.

The Great Remus Imperium had fractured into a dozen warring clans, each vying for control of the Capitol, Admantine. Their warbands roamed the countryside looting and pillaging, clashing violently with opposing armies in bloody battles that claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers per engagement, culminating in the Siege of Admantine and the total annihilation the capitol.

The Beast Races, hoping to exploit the Imperium's state of disarray, quickly severed all ties and proclaimed independence. They cut down the meagre Imperial forces sent to quell them, with the Khajiit and Orsimer launching their own counterattacks against the Imperium from their homelands of Elsweyr and High Rock, respectively.

The continent of Akavir had disappeared completely for unknown reasons.

After two decades of bloodshed, no clear victor had emerged. It seemed as though no power on Nirn could possibly end this brutal conflict.

That is, until Celestia came.

As was the case with most ponies in that Era, she was born into a life of slavery under the Remus Imperium. Taking advantage of the Imperium's weakness, she quickly rallied the equine races under her banner and moved to unify all of Tamriel.

She took possession of the Elements of Harmony, Sacred Artifacts imbued with the power and essence of the Eight Divines themselves.

Harnessing the power of the Elements, she arrested control of the Sun and Moon and through them, forced an end to the Chaos Wars once and for all.

She carved the city of Canterlot out of the side of a mountain singlehandedly, and had unified all the races of Tamriel under the banner of the Equestrian Empire. Exactly one year after the end of the Chaos Wars, she brought about the end of the Second Era, and the dawn of the Third with the lighting of the Eternal Dragonfires in Canterlot's Temple of the One.

A pact was made with Akatosh that day, sealed with the blood of Celestia herself and that of her descendants, that long as Celestia's blood remains on the throne, The Dragonfires will continue to burn, and ensure that Chaos will never again reign in Tamriel...

"Flagro"
*vwoooooooshhhh.*

A small ball of fire erupted from my fingertips and hovered lazily next to me, providing just enough light for me to see where I was walking.

"Hey, look's like you are useful for something after all prisoner."

"Thanks. That means a lot to me coming from you."

His name was Steffan, the Blade that had "complimented" me, and it was clear that he trusted me about as much as you'd trust an Argonian Beggar with your coin-purse. The moment I had entered the tunnel he had insisted that I be the one on point duty. I coul understand his suspicion, I really could, but I still couldn't help but resent the fact that he was making take the lead on a trip through a pitch black, and probably booby-trap infested tunnel.

The tunnel itself was nothing special. Carved out of solid rock hundreds of years ago, it was your average dungeon escape route. Dark. Damp. Creepy.
Torches were mounted along the walls, but they had long since burned out and were cocooned in thick cobwebs.

Five minutes of walking later, we had reached a section of the old Ayleid ruin. It was fairly small and narrow, and possessed only two steep staircases which led down to a small room with an old locked metal gate.

"I'll get the gate, watch my back." Steffan said as we reached the bottom of the staircase. He reached the gate and began fumbling with an old ring of Keys.

"Let's see..no..maybe...this...no...hang on give me a moment"

"Hurry Stef, this place...feels wrong. We need to go. Now!"

"I've almost got it Cap'n I ju-"

*Vvvvvvvrrrraaaaaaaaaaackk!*

A bolt of lightning had come from seemingly nowhere and had blown a hole the size of a melon in Steffan's chest. Parts of his armor around the wound were now glowing a molten orange. He fell to the ground in a heap of sizzling flesh and metal.

*Vvvvvooooooosssssshhhhh! Craack! Craack!*

Additional attacks - Fireballs - had also been conjured from thin air and had blown two smoking holes into the marble floor. The Princess had taken shelter in the archway, her blades shielding her both with their shields, and their bodies.

I had leapt behind a fallen pillar, and began scanning the room for the source of the offending spells. I didn't have to search long as I spotted two small glittering orbs moving atop a shadowy balcony.

"FUROREM!"
*VrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRACK!*

A lance of blinding white light had shot out of the tips of my fingers and impacted against its target instantaneously, killing it instantly and lighting its corpse ablaze, the light from the fire revealing the silhoutes of four more attackers wearing thick mage's robes. As the thick rasping sounds of blades being unsheathed pierced the air, I couldn't help but swear.

"Shit! They're coming from the balcony behind us and to the left!" I called out with all the dignity and composure a man in my situation could possibly muster - which is to say, none at all.

The Blades had run to my position and readied themselves before I could say another word.

"Go! Protect the Princess!" They had shouted a moment before violently tossing me towards the archway and the Princess. I stood over her, assumed a defensive stance, and tried to make myself seem tougher and more heroic than I actually was. I can't say she was all that impressed.

What was impressive was the speed and efficiency with which the Blades had cut down the four attackers. They were...flawless. Within half a minute they had reduced four armed assassins into large lifeless slabs of finely cut meat...

***

We had made good progress on our trip through Canterlot's subterranean hellhole. A number of robed assassins had attempted to ambush us from the shadows, but we had made quick work of them.

My very limited knowledge of Restoration magic had been put to good use healing gashes and bruises, and I had managed to scavenge some leather armor in decent condition (Curiass, Boots, Wrist-guards, and a cloak) which I donned eagerly, earning me a couple of weird looks from the Princess and her Blades. Hell, it beat running around in unarmored prison pajamas.

After another ten minutes of walking, we had entered a large abandoned chamber. On the far side of the room from where we walked in, the door to a small storage chamber had been torn off its hinges. On the right side of the room, another metal gate which we needed to get through. We walked to the gate slowly, scanning the shadows for hidden threats. None. It seemed clear. Then again, it always seems the safest right before you get jumped from behind.

Captain Rennault, as I had come to know her name was, tried the gate...

*clank*

"DAMNIT! The gate is barred from the other side! A TRAP!"

The sound of heavy footfalls approaching from all directions, and the rasping of dozens of blades from their scabbards seemed to confirm her theory.
At least a dozen of them had entered the room and more were no doubt on the way. They closed in around us like a pack of hungry wolves.

They wore grotesque, jagged armor which covered virtually all parts of their bodies. It was charcoal colored in appearance, with what appeared to be ghostly blue daedric runes inscribed all over it. Their helmets, jet black and inscribed with runes all over much like the rest of the armor, bore the likeness of a wolf's skull. The eyes glowed dull purple, and large demonic horns sprouted from its sides, their tips menacingly curved outward. Their blades were made out of the same bizarre, demonic material, and were curved similar to Redguard Scimitars. They possessed cruel, razor-sharp serrations on their cutting edges, and seemed to sing with unimaginable glee with each swing, almost as if they relished the act of killing and craved for the flesh of the innocent. The very sight of them made me shudder inside.

I had sprayed down three of them with a torrent of arcane fire, but failed to bring any of them down. I had, however, staggered them long enough for Rennault and Baurus to exploit a few weaknesses in their armor. They howled and then crumbled as the Blades sank their Dai-Katanas through their armor, and into the soft, vulnerable flesh beneath. Thick particles of soot and ghostly blue wisps of smoke shed from their armor until finally the armor itself finally erupted in a violent flash of blue fire and violet light, leaving only a small pile of ash.

Two more emerged from the shadows behind us and bore down on the Princess. Again, I sprayed them with steady stream of fire and again I merely staggered them, but then I followed with an old frost spell I learned back when I was still welcomed in the Mages Guild. I had magically conjured two razor-sharp bolts of solid ice, which I then telekinetically hurled at my assailants. Of the two bolts, one had impacted high on the breastplate of an assassin, failed to penetrate, and instead wedged itself up and into the gullet of the poor bastard. The other had impacted dead center on the second attacker's helmet, but as with the first - failed to penetrate. Instead, it snapped his head back violently, breaking his neck with a sickening crack. Both assassins were dead before they hit the ground, their bodies engulfed in the arcane fires of their dissolving armor, and dissolving with it.

I turned back around to see the blades locked in a deadly duel with five more assassins, with another assassins attempting to sneak around the brawl and take the blades from behind.

"Oh no you don't you little.." I muttered, simultaneously conjuring a four foot long razor sharp shaft of ice. I zeroed my focus in on him, and less than a second later had launched the shaft across the room and into his chest. It shattered against the armor's thick breastplate, but the kinetic energy from the throw was more than sufficient to knock him not just on his ass, but also send him flying back a good seven feet into the wall, knocking him out cold. His armor violently erupted into flames a moment later, burning the unconscious assassin to death.

"We need to get the Princess out of here!" Rennault shouted in between a flurry slashes and blows. She had succeeded in felling two of her opponents, but the remaining three were now ganging up on Baurus. With each successive strike they gradually wore him down. Now he was visibly struggling to fend off the assassin's blows. Rennault and I leapt into action. She had jumped into the fray, decapitated one of the assassins and violently pulled Baurus away while I hit the last two assassins with a combination of arcane fire and frost spells.

Taking advantage of a brief lull in the battle, we secured the Princess inside the chamber's small storage room. Rennault and Baurus took up arms at the room's doorway, the only visible entry point, while I remained inside with the Princess, guarding her with my life. Her breathing was staggered and heavy, and her whole body was trembling violently.

We heard more footsteps approaching from the outside, followed by the violent clanging of metal on metal. We heard many cries of agony from the doorway, but no Assassins entered. The Blades were holding their own quite nicely, but nonetheless I assumed a defensive posture and prepared to incinerate any assassin who made it through the doorway. The room was tiny, and was scarcely seven feet by eight feet. If an assassin did make it through, things would get very hairy very fast. I had no doubt in my mind that if I was forced into melee combat with one of them without a weapon of my own barring my fists that I would not survive, but I was not about to let them murder the Princess without a fight.

A soft tap on my shoulder shifted my attention from those thoughts, and I turned to face the Princess. Once again I was eye to eye with Equestria's monarch. I noticed that her breathing had returned to normal, and that her shaking had stopped. She seemed, strangely I thought, at peace. The soft twinkle in her eyes that I had noticed back in the jail cell had manifested itself into a single, glittering tear that slid down the side of her face.

"I can go no further child. You alone must stand against the Queen of Darkness and her mortal servants." She said calmly, magically manifesting a small, ornate wooden box and placing it my hands.

"She must not have the Elements of Harmony. Take this box to Jauffre. He alone knows where to find my last daughter. Find him, and close shut the jaws of Oblivion."

A deep rumble and the shaking of the ground beneath me feet alerted me to the opening of a secret doorway directly beside the Princess. I leapt to intercept the assassin, but I was too slow. In the blink of an eye he had emerged from the passageway and sunken his cruel demonic blade into the Princess's neck. A sputter of thick, red blood and the Princess crumbled to the floor in a heap, the life leaving her eyes...

"No!"

Rage. Pure unadulterated Rage. I had harnessed it. Channeled it through every fiber of my being. In a heartbeat I unleashed a flurry of elemental hell at the assassin. A perfect storm of arcane lighting, frost, fire and deep burning hatred. I pinned him to the wall with it. Watched as he was ripped apart by the ferocious elemental forces. Not relenting until even the tiniest piece of his body was little more than a cloud of glowing ethereal fumes....

Deep within the Ancient Halls of Sancre Tor the Traitor stirred uncomfortably, surrounded on all sides by deep unnatural darkness that writhed and slithered, as if it were alive and possessed a mind of its own. The room was abnormally cold and damp.

In the corner of his eye the Traitor saw a figure manifest itself in the Darkness, taking on the vague shape of a man. He turned and approached the figure, trying to mask his uneasiness.

"Come no closer." The figure instructed calmly. The traitor obliged.

"Is it done?" He asked, impatiently tapping his foot on the cold stone floor. He bore an irritated expression on his old, weathered face, but in reality was struggling to keep his entire body from shaking. The figure merely held its ground stoically.

"Your map of the Canterlot Subterranean Catacombs was quite insightful. The Pretender will no longer be an issue for you. The Mother has seen to her. The figure said, conjuring up the image of a bloodied demonic blade and the crumpled, bleeding body of Princess Luna. "Now what of your side of the Bargain?"

"I've already dispatched my soldiers to find the remaining Elements of Harmony. Rest assured that they will be in your possession by the end of the week. In the meantime, The Princess is dead, and the Empire is in crisis. Someone needs to step up and assert order. Someone with a respectable reputation and who can garner the support of the Empire's nobility with ease. Someone like Me..." An evil smirk had briefly appeared on his face and then vanished just as quickly.

"Tell your 'Mother' then, that all of my assets are in place, and that we are finally ready to proceed with the next step of the plan." The Traitor had spat.

"Excellent!" The shadowy figure had bellowed in a rare and terrifying display of glee. It had obviously been looking forward to this "next step" very very much.

And with that, the Silhouette vanished in a brief flash of violet light, the abominable, writhing darkness withdrawing with him, leaving the room to bask in the warm, comforting torchlight.

The Traitor sighed and collapsed into the padded chair behind his desk. Encounters with The Nightmare always left him a bit shaken.

================================
Author's notes
================================
And so begins our hero's epic journey through the land of Cyrodii-I mean Equestria.

I just kind of came up with the idea for this story really quickly on the way back from work. I've still got a lot of things to hammer through. Details about the setting, etc. The plotline will be pretty similar to that of Oblivion's for the Intro, but after that I'm planning on expanding and doing my own thing with this. Yes, this setting does have humans, along with the other races from TES. If you're not a fan of those, sorry, I'm stupid like that.

I could use some help with proofreading, and reviewing.

More importantly, and this may sound colossally stupid, but I can't decide on a name for our protagonist. I'd really like some suggestions.

Grab some popcorn and prepare to point and laugh because I may have just committed to something hilariously bad.

Cheers, Loki